Science & Philosophy

Is the engineering of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) a dangerous technology posing grave risks to human and ecological health? Or are GMOs a potent new tool in the onward march of modern agricultural technology in its race to feed the world? In a recent opinion piece -- Opposition to GMOs Isn't Just Anti-Science, It's Immoral-- Purdue University president Mitch Daniels offers an impassioned plea that we embrace GMOs in agriculture. Daniels’ argument runs as follows: The health and ecological safety of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) is unquestionable “settled science.” Therefore, it is immoral to deny developing countries the agricultural technology ...Read More

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Orland Bishop is in my eyes a treasure on this earth. In this third conversation, we talk about the cosmological and geological dimensions of the current evolution of culture and consciousness, along with other topics. Please do avail yourself of the information carried by Orland's words and -- even more -- by his voice ... More →

In this video from Spring 2018 in New Zealand, Charles advocates for expanding our exclusive focus on carbon emissions to see the broader picture beyond our short-sighted and incomplete approach to mitigating climate change. The natural and the material world--the rivers, forests, and creatures--are sacred and valuable in their own right, not simply for carbon credits or preventing the extinction of one species versus another. Seeing the bigger picture of how everything from prison reform to saving the whales can contribute to our planetary ecological health, we resist reflexive postures of solution and blame and reach toward the deep place where commitment lives ... More →

Has the time come to move beyond our obsession with measurement? Charles Eisenstein compares science to religion and makes the case for moving beyond the belief that only the measurable is real. "Existing techniques," he says, "are insufficient to the task before us." Everything that really matters to people is left out of the numbers. When we give up the find-the-enemy approach to problem-solving we discover that the problem involves ourselves too - and that we don't know what to do anymore. When we admit to not knowing, things become possible. Let's embrace the uncertainty of mystery and paradox, and admit it's OK not to know ... More →

Is the engineering of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) a dangerous technology posing grave risks to human and ecological health? Or are GMOs a potent new tool in the onward march of modern agricultural technology in its race to feed the world? In a recent opinion piece -- Opposition to GMOs Isn't Just Anti-Science, It's Immoral-- Purdue University president Mitch Daniels offers an impassioned plea that we embrace GMOs in agriculture. Daniels’ argument runs as follows: The health and ecological safety of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) is unquestionable “settled science.” Therefore, it is immoral to deny developing countries the agricultural technology they need to boost food production and feed their growing populations. It seems an open-and-shut case: the self-indulgent anti-GMO fad ... More →

This podcast is a recording of a second conversation between me and Rupert Sheldrake, one of my favorite renegade scientists and the number one target of the defenders of scientific orthodoxy. He hardly needs any introduction, but I'll say he is prolific author and researcher with a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Cambridge University. As you will see, it is rather hard to dismiss him as a New Age airhead. I see him as an elder or a pioneer in the liberating of science from its metaphysical dogmas of reductionism and mechanistic materialism, and a true practitioner of the Scientific Method in its original humble spirit. I hope you'll enjoy the intellect and refinement of this man as much as I ... More →

Rupert Sheldrake is one of the most thoughtful, lucid people I have ever met. In this conversation we talk about the foundations of science, both as an institution and as a path to knowledge. Like all the institutions of modernity, science faces a crisis that is increasingly recognized within science itself. Part of it is the "replicability crisis," but as Rupert and I discuss, that is but a gateway into deeper epistemological and metaphysical problems ... More →

In The Fourth Phase of Water, Gerald Pollack offers an elegant new theory of water chemistry that has profound implications not only for chemistry and biology, but for the metaphoric foundation of our understanding of reality and our treatment of nature ... More →

That this spontaneous and numinous experience happened to one of the world's most prominent debunkers of such experiences may, like the dot of yin in the fullness of yang, portend a fundamental transition ... More →

On our way to see the latest installment of The Hobbit, I asked my 10-year-old Philip and his two friends, “Don’t you wish that the real world were 3-D just like the movies?”“Yeah!” they said with relish. “That would be so awesome!” The joke was on me, it seemed. A minute later I tried to explain: “Guys, you realize that reality already is 3-D, don’t you? I was making a joke.” “But it isn’t like the movies,” said the 11-year-old sitting next to me, “where stuff comes right at you.” “Yes it is,” I said, pretending to swat him in the face. The conversation soon turned toward other topics, and I was left with an abiding sadness over that boy’s ... More →

Published on Nov 6, 2013 In this interview for the upcoming documentary “AWAKE”, Charles Eisenstein talks about our true longing and he explains how our money system works and why it leads to separation in our society ... More →

Originally, the thesis of this essay was going to be that TED, contrary to its reputation for promoting innovative ideas, excludes ideas that are truly radical or disruptive, contributing instead to a slickly packaged narrative of “Gee whiz, thanks to these nifty ideas, the world is getting better all the time.” TED is, I thought, a conservative institution, a champion of our culture's dominant narratives. It isn't hard to make that case, but when I cast my net a little wider and crowd-sourced some research, I discovered the situation is not quite so simple. The two recent incidents that motivated my original thesis were (1) The suppression of TEDx talks by Rupert Sheldrake and Graham Hancock, and (2) The withdrawal ... More →

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